1
THE CONTESTED LEGITIMACY OF THE FRENCH THIRD REPUBLIC (1870-1940)  1894-99: The Dreyfus Affair reveals civil-military tension.  1905: Foundation of the unified French Socialist Party (SFIO), led by Jean Jaurès.  1905-08: Radical Republican Premier Georges Clemenceau passes 17 reform bills, vetoed by the Senate  August 1914: All French parties and trade unions agree to the “Sacred Union.”  November 1917: collapse of the Sacred Union  May 1919: General strike compels Clemenceau to grant the 8-hour day.  1920: Failed general strike; SFIO majority opts for Comintern

2
THE THIRD REPUBLIC WAS FOUNDED IN DEFEAT: “France Signing the Preliminary Peace Terms,” March 1871 (Marianne loses custody of her children, Alsace and Lorraine)

3
“The Two Republics” (cartoon, 1872): Adolphe Thiers proclaimed, “The Republic will be conservative, or it will not be.” This cartoon reflects the tension between Radical and “Opportunist” Republicans in the 1870s.

26
A German and a French corpse in a trench, published in Le Miroir, 21 May 1916

27
TYPICAL DEMANDS BY THE FRENCH MUTINEERS, MAY 1917 (from a letter by a soldier in the 36 th Infantry Regiment to his uncle) “When the time came to advance to the front line, an incident happened in the army corps in which we demanded our rights in the following things: 1. Peace and the right to leaves, which are in arrears. 2. No more butchery; we want liberty. 3. On food, which is shameful. 4. No more injustice. 5. We don’t want the blacks in Paris and in other regions mistreating our wives. 6. We need peace to feed our wives and children and to be able to give bread to the women and orphans. We demand peace, peace.”

28
Clemenceau returned to power in November 1917 as the generals’ ally and arrested Interior Minister Malvy for treason

34
The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) demands an “Economic Council of Labor” to organize demobilization and reconstruction (1919). After a failed general strike in May 1920, CGT membership plunged from 2.5 million to 600,000.

35
The SFIO Tours Congress of December 1920 resolved to join the Comintern

36
Gustav Stresemann & Aristide Briand, Co-Winners of the Nobel Prize for signing the Treaty of Locarno in 1925; Germany now entered the League

38
French Military Cemetery at Verdun, with “Ossuary” built from 1920 to 1932

39
Human remains deposited in the Ossuary of Verdun: Leonard Smith argues that a wave of revulsion against the Great War only swept through France in the 1920s, as the French people contemplated its costs….